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Another literacy issue I became aware
of at a very early stage was the incomprehensibility of "legalese" to
the general public. In my zeal to be understandable, I may have gone a little
overboard on occasion, as one of my articling students pointed out to me on
unearthing one of my early riles. I had written to an unsophisticated client in
a remote community about her charge of "hurting her brother Harry"
rather than telling her that her "charge of aggravated assault by wounding
had been reduced to assault causing bodily harm and the Crown was now asking
for a suspended sentence instead of a period of incarceration". But the
lesson of the barrier of legalese has remained with me. |
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| How I Attempt to Make Court
Experiences Understandable to People who have Literacy Problems |
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As a judge, the words "entering
into a recognizance" almost never cross my lips in speaking to an accused.
I invariably tell the accused that he or she is required to sign a piece of
paper promising the court to do certain things and I outline the consequences
if those promises are not kept. Sometimes I think that I may sound some what
like a simpleton to the lawyers who are present or to the higher court looking
at one of my transcripts. Then I remember the compliment I have treasured the
most as a judge, that of the clerk on one of my circuit courts in one of my
first years as a judge. He told me that when he was working in the court office
during one of my dockets, he was both surprised and pleased that the people
coming to sign orders made on my docket generally understood what had happened
to them in court, contrary to his usual experience. |